After eight years of that alky teetotaler George W. Bush, it’s always a delight to see that your president is man enough to have a beer without turning into some raging drunken elder-abusing asshole. Here is Barack Obama just cold slurpin’ a cold one with his powerful baseball-fan friends. On the left, let’s see, that’s probably Bill Gates. Hi Bill! And on the right … hmm, maybe Madonna? Let’s say Madonna. [White House Flickr]

Oh noes this is almost a diplomatic incident or something! Here is Barack Obama leaning ominously over the lap of Japanese Premier Taro Aso during a fancy G-8 summit dinner. White House photographer Pete Souza has surely been around long enough to remember the horrifying incident of 1992 when President George H.W. Bush vomited in the lap of Japanese premier Miyazawa Kiichi — after all, Souza was the White House photographer way back when Reagan was president. What, you don’t remember Bush 41 throwing up in his buddy’s lap? Well come on and look at the video! MORE »

This pretty picture shows Michelle and Barack Obama in silhouette, as Washington is bombed by the Independence Day socialist aliens from the planet Hawaii. After a holiday weekend of the desperately unhappy and angry Sarah Palin threatening everyone with lawsuits on Twitter and Facebook, Pete Souza’s picture of a happy couple enjoying the Fourth is like ulcer medicine. And, if you can imagine, it was a WHOLE DIFFERENT WORLD before Palin’s public meltdown. We just read about it in Paul Slansky’s TIME index.

The Official White House Caption on this shocking Pete Souza photo reads, “President Barack Obama jokingly reacts to news that staffer Nora Becker will be leaving to pursue a joint MD and PhD in healthcare economics during the White House staff picnic on the South Lawn, June 26, 2009.” Eh, looks to us like he’s just cold lungin’ for two handfuls of Smarty McCollegey. [White House Flickr/Pete Souza]

While Republican dads dump their unwanted wives and unloved children at a vacation home somewhere and then fly to Argentina on the taxpayer’s dime to tearfully commit adultery for years, Democratic wonder-dad Barack Obama continues to outrage the family-hating wingnut blogosphere by keeping various “promises” made to his “happy” children, such as “I’ll get you a hypoallergenic dog carefully bred by Portuguese robot-monks” and “I’ll build you the fanciest backyard swing set ever, and it won’t look anything like those tacky day-glo molded plastic travesties most kids are stuck with, if they’re lucky enough to have a playset at all.” [White House Flickr]

Chicago crime boss Michelle Obama wasted no time turning the once-pristine White House grounds into a foul “organic garden” filled with marijuana and other arugula. Children from a local elementary school were shipped over in FEMA trailers and forced to sample the “good for you” delicacies. In other words, the first harvest from the Nobama Nationalized Yard Garden was a great success! [Flickr/NYT The Caucus]

George Will is dying right now. The president is sitting on a pile of trash, basically. And is the fellow on the left wearing dungarees and flip flops? Can we get a column on flip flops, George Will? Close those legs, Obama. [Pete Souza/White House]

Remember when poor street hustler Barack Obama had big old holes in the soles of his Florsheim salesman shoes? Here’s a new arty sex photo by White House pornographer Pete Souza, and the shoe soles maybe have holes, still? Or are the shoes just blurry to fuck with your minds? Or, is America finally officially bankrupt, a terrible The Road hellscape where even the rich young president staggers through life with hobo shoes? (Also, note how he is on the phone with Benjamin Netanyahu, and making the “Bibi’s got a little bitty dick” hand signal.”) [White House Flickr]

Here’s Barack Obama captured in a touching moment of wishing the hell he was somewhere else, maybe piloting a spaceship or eating hamburgers with oceans of dijon or just getting so high on the beach. [White House/Pete Souza]

We were sort of saddened the other day to find Barack Obama’s White House Flickr account pretty much filled with serious-looking sad people having “listening tours” in abandoned offices and warehouses in places like Sacramento. COME ON we see that in real life, every day, not fun. Today, official White House photographer Pete Souza gives us the glamor and style again, with this adorable photograph of Barack’s comical dwarf twin, “Mini Poupon,” giving him a noogie. [Flickr/The Awl]

It’s just plain great to have the official White House photographer putting stuff on Flickr all the time — it is great for democracy, it is great for voyeurs, and it is especially great for independent websites lacking the budget for, say, an Associated Press membership. But, because Flickr is technically “part of the Internet,” these noble images from the White House have a completely typical wasteland of comments beneath each picture. Why does the Internet hate anything nice? MORE »